Apartheid fail: Israeli Druze to head Ziv Medical Center

As expressed in the IDF-MC oath, “To extend a helping hand to any who is injured or ill, be they lowly or venerable, friend or foe – to any fellow man,” the State of Israel, since its establishment in 1948, adopted a strategy to provide humanitarian aid to people in need all over the world. Indeed, s uch missions were previously launched by the IDF-MC in Armenia, Turkey, Macedonia, Haiti, Japan, the Philippines and others, following natural disasters Now, for the first time, such large-scale humanitarian aid is delivered not thousands of miles away, but right on our borders to citizens of a hostile country.... Encountering the Syrian patients and hearing their personal stories touched us on several levels – as medical professionals, as Israelis, and first and foremost as fellow human beings. We were dismayed to learn that prior to this encounter many of our Syrian patients considered us “evil” or “devils,” but we were encouraged that after meeting us in person and witnessing our hands outstretched in benevolence and goodwill many reconsidered their judgment. We also learned that word of the humanitarian and medical aid extended on the Israeli side of the border had spread widely among locals. We were especially moved to hear the story of a young mother whose two children were admitted to our field hospital. She told us that when her home was shelled and her children injured, villagers insisted that she “take them west” – to the Israeli border. “In the west the Israelis have set up a hospital to save us,” they told her. “They will take care of your children, and once they have recovered, you will be able to return home.”

Today, it was announced that Col. Dr. Salman Zarka, head of the Israel Defense Forces’ health
services, has been named director-general of Safed’s Ziv Medical Center. He is the first Druze Israeli to head an Israeli hospital

Born
in Peki’in in the Upper Galilee into a large Druse family, he is
married and the father of three. He studied medicine at the Technion’s
Rappoport Medical Faculty as part of the IDF’s academic program and then
went directly into the Medical Corps, with special expertise in public
health and medical administration.

He has also lectured in
University of Haifa's Welfare and Health Faculty, and Hebrew
University’s special military medicine program in Jerusalem. He is the
author of many medical journal articles.

Zarka is a graduate of the National Security College, where he earned a
master’s degree (summa cum laude) in political science and national
security. He also received a master’s of public health degree from the
Hebrew University’s Braun School of Public Health and Community
Medicine.

His last position in the IDF was as head of the medical services center
and the department of health services. For the last 18 months, he has
run the humanitarian hospital in the Golan Heights. He planned and
established the field hospital on the Syrian border to provide medical
services for Syrians who have been wounded in the civil war there.